Kickstater redux.

Cover, courtesy Baer Charlton, Laura Reynolds.

This project didn't reach it's funding goals but there is a lot of interest in it still; soon, hopefully there will be more news, including some alternate methods of publishing.

Kick Starter Project

Note: This post is sticky for the balance of the project. Scroll down for more recent posts.

Cover, courtesy Baer Charlton, Laura Reynolds.

The very first novel about a picture framing shop, really. The book was written by Baer Charlton, published photo journalist for over 20 years, professional picture framer for over 40 years, multi-medium artist since diapers, and illustrated by Laura Reynolds, a terrific sci/fi and fantasy artist. They are doing a Kick Starter project to fund the publication and distribution of the book, here. They need some help, so check it out.

Kick Starter is an All or Nothing method of funding creative projects, involving pledges of support and rewards for your pledge. Projects range from Art to inventions, books, films; anything creative that needs a little "Kick".

Thanks!

Bron

More Civil War

284 feet in the air above The Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Monument Circle, downtown Indianapolis, stands "Victory", or sometimes "Lady Liberty", with flaming torch in her left hand, and a mighty sword in her right, and wearing an eagle as a headdress. She recently has returned to the circle from a visit to the "beauty shop", where she has undergone restoration.

Here, in her hoisting gear, before her floodlit, towering base, she stands waiting for the winds to settle so she may be lifted back high above the city. When she first arose atop  the monument, it was in over 40 separate pieces, pulled aloft by horses and pulleys, with a system of pins to hold her together. Now, she has been welded together and will ride this to her perch:

Sorry for the bad photo, but I didn't have a handy tree or pole to brace the camera with, as in the previous photo, and it was windy.

We were in Nap Town for a family expedition, and I've not been following the news, so I did not know she was still on the ground. After dinner, though, we were able to drive around the circle, and I had to stop and take a few photos.

Indianapolis is home to the tallest Civil War Monument, quite possibly the finest Childrens Museum on the planet, a wonderful State Museum, with a delightful series of sculptural plaques depicting each of the states counties, and what is becoming a world class art museum, with it's new, 100 acre Art and Nature Park. And dolphins and ellyphants at the zoo. Oh, and the Eiteljorg Museum of Western Art, and something named after an oil company, Lucas?, where some football team plays, US football, Colts, and some guy named Manning, some sort of celeb. 8-)

On this Day, September 3rd.

The Civil War monument in Cassopolis, Michigan. On this day in 1862, General Robert E. Lee begins the Maryland campaign, which would end at Antietam, a battle many consider the true beginning of the end for the Confederacy. Somewhat related, in 1838, future abolitionist, Frederick Douglas, escapes from slavery.

Off Topic, Electronica

Above, a screen shot from my iPhone. Recently, on the Picture Framers Grumble, there was a discussion about QR codes, which I've talked of previously.

I'm a fan of QR codes; there's one with my contact info to the right, so I thought a little history. I'm not an early adopter, waiting in lines for the latest gadget, but I was pretty quick to move from a paper "Day Runner" type organizer to an electronic one, in the form of a Palm gadget. I think I went through two of them before going to an even better gadget, the smart phone. The Palms were searchable, had their own "shorthand", Graffiti, which was intuitive and fairly easy to pick up, and they could sync with a desktop computer. Later models also had an infrared port, which allowed for electronic information exchange between Palms. No typing or shorthand data entry, which until recently is missing on smart phones.

Now, finally, we have the QR code, and simple generators and readers for the codes, which allow for electronic information exchange between devices, with out the need for data entry.

A screen shot of the reader and code generator on my phone, Qrafter. Codes can be any bits of information, but the real value is they put the information where it belongs, and they are not platform specific, though a smart phone is needed. Once scanned, the info can be used to create a contact entry, link to a website, sent as an email, text message, or tweet, or just to offer a "special". By eliminating data entry, errors are eliminated, and the need for business cards could be eliminated, though there will always be some hold outs.

I'm seeing them more often, on shop windows, magazine advertisements., etc.. They offer both information and specials, such as links to special offers, but any information that one wants to pass on can be made into a code.

I recently scanned one from a guitar magazine, "waiting for the kid's lesson to be over", that linked to a website for Gretsch guitars, and specific to Duane Eddy, The King of Twang, with videos of some of his songs. Those of a certain age will know what I'm talking about, though he is still very active. The QR code:

Bron

Restoration

Whilst looking for photos of my polydactyl cat, I ran across these and decided they needed to see the wide open spaces of the interwebs.

Probably 19th. century, a Chippendale style "Chinoserie" mirror frame, carved and gilt. The above is the after picture.

The frame in process. It had extensive lacunae (losses) at the arrises (edges) (just trying to educate everybody), numerous fractures and numerous cases of lost carvings. The frame is hand carved. The white is new gesso fills. The entire frame was regilt, 23K, water and size gilding.

I had to "make up" some missing ornaments, as there was only the one, and it was gone, but if you study frames, ornamentation is a language, that once learned, makes it relatively easy to fill in the missing "words". Of course, it took some time to learn the language. Just looking at frames is a start; then there are the classics; "The Grammar of Ornament", Owen Jones, and "The Encyclopedia of Ornament", A. Racinet. Both have modern reprints. Obtaining a catalog from Decorators Supply, in Chicago, is worth the price of admission, though not focused on framers needs.

Recent

A small frame, of Art Nouveau design, in 23K gold. An aside, though I like the design, I'm not completely satisfied with the ... balance of this frame. In person, it looks better than in the photo, though.

A much larger frame, in a mid-nineteenth century, Neo-classical style. 5 inches high and 6 inches wide, with hand carved cross grain fluting, and applied, composition ornaments. 23K gold. There have been various posts concerning this frame under construction. Unusual for me, I'm quite satisfied with the way these have turned out, and these ( I made two) have had an enormous amount of problems; far beyond the normal problems that unusual frames are subject to.

Identification of leaf varieties.

The easiest method of identifying what kind of gilding one is looking at, is to look for the leaf lines; the spot where the leaves meet. In the above sample, the arrows are pointing at the lines of metal leaf (schlagmetal, dutch metal, composition leaf). When it is "gold" colored, it is a brass alloy, about 10,000th of an inch thick, and comes in a 5 1/2 inch square leaf. There are aluminum leaves; silver colored; copper leaf; copper colored, and various kinds of variegated leaf; multiple colors in one leaf.

Here, the leaf lines on matte, karat gold. The leaves come in slightly different sizes, depending on manufacturer, but are close to 3 1/4 inches square, and about 300,000th of an inch thick. This is the most common form of karat gold, though there is ribbon or roll gold, and there is a wide variety of karat weights and gold alloys, ranging from a white gold at 12K, to pure 24K leaves. For outdoor use; all those domes and statues, use a minimum of 23K. Another way of identifying genuine gold on picture frames, would be a distinctive difference between high spots and recessive areas of the frame, where the high spots have been burnished to a mirror like shine. This is called matte and burnish work, and requires the gold to be laid in the water gilt method, over a material called bole. Bole is mixed with glue, applied in multiple layers to the frame, polished, then gilt. When dry it is burnished with an agate stone, the most popular stone for burnishing. Bole comes in reds, yellows, blues, and blacks, with multiple shades in each color, and can often be seen where the leaf is worn, either through age or intention.

This is a brief explanation of what one is looking at; but this is a very ancient craft, and I touch on only the more common styles. There is gilding with tin foil; silver leaf lacquered to look like gold; bronze powders; bronze powder paint; and now, the non-tarnishing mica powders.

Size gilding, water gilding, glass gilding, engine turned gilding, and not least, gilding the lily.  8-)

And just to confuse the issue, there are many examples of lesser materials carefully finished to look like genuine gold.

Addendum: Metal leaf comes in other sizes as well, 6 1/4 square being the other common size.

Bron

The Importance of Art

"Morning Glory"

Here a brief article by Martha Nussbaum, a Professor at the University of Chicago, on the importance of art. Probably needs to be said more.

Bron

P.S. And more, here, from photographer, author , and artist, Kirk Tuck.

Laying Leaf

Two images showing the way I handle karat gold leaf. Top, the tip is held by the last two fingers of the right hand for cutting the leaf; bottom, the knife is now held by the last two fingers of the left hand. I work directly from the book of leaf. A book of leaf holds 25 leaves, between a tissue paper. I used to just insert a piece of mat board under the tissue, as a "cutting board" for cutting the leaf, but on a "bad day", this could be difficult with the mat board and the book all wanting to go in different directions. I've added a little touch that helps, though; double sided tape, framers ATG tape, holding the book to the mat board. I've used packaging tape as a surface on the mat board. The knife is one of the small, swiss army type knives, with a stainless steel blade; I've found they are the easiest to maintain a good edge on for cutting leaf. (The sign maker I worked with when first learning karat gold work, used the elongated fingernail, of his right hand, as a "knife". I did for a while, but kept breaking that nail.)

I'm patching "holidays, missed spots, holidays, get it" from the initial size gilding, so there is some cutting. 

In the bottom image , on the back of my left hand, some small specks of gold adhering to the minuscule amount of Vaseline on the back of my left hand, rubbed in there to provide a place for me to pick up a little tack for the tip, so it can pick up the leaf. Cut the leaf to the size needed, brush the back of my left hand with the tip, (flat, long haired brush for handling leaf) to get some tack to it, pick up piece of leaf, and apply. In an earlier post, where I'm speckled, when gilding I'm usually "glittery", as I use the right front of my shirt to clean and dry the tip.

On size work, I usually work with the book, almost like "patent gold" when I can, rolling the leaf onto the surface directly from the book.  No tip, no knife. Patent gold is a leaf slightly affixed to a sheet of paper that can be laid on the surface being gilt; useful for outdoor applications, as loose gold leaf is incredibly fragile.

Metal leaf, another post. And an aside, these are my techniques for an ancient craft, and they are not necessarily definitive. 

More variations on a theme.

Some frames in a mid-nineteenth century style, not exact reproductions. I've designed every aspect of them; all of the ornaments were chosen for reasons, or were designed and made by me for an overall design. They are in a style, but not reproductions. I will expand on that more when they are done, fitted to the paintings, and I have some images of the whole. 

One of the two frames "dominating" the studio at the moment. The burnished bits have been gilt, and the corner in the foreground has been burnished. Once the burnishing is done, I'll seal the rest of the frame with a colored shellac, a pale yellow, ocher like, though much softer. The matte areas, everything not water gilt, will be oil gilt. Water gilding allows the gold to be burnished into the bole, ( dark gray bits) producing a shiny, reflective surface. This contrasts with the matte areas. Oil gilding produces a more matte, matte gold than all water gilding.

More later, especially after I finish these two.  These two have had a higher than usual number of problems; none insurmountable, but every step seems to require some solutions, thought and remembrance. Well, the broker of the commission said, after stopping by to see them, that he thought they were going to be gorgeous. Glad he said it; I can't until they're done. (Being the one who wrestles the problems, it can be months after a project before I can see clearly that it turned out well).

If the liner seems "out of place", that's because it is; it has been raised on blocks inside it's outer frame for "access".  My work space is small; I need to be creative.

Variation on a theme

 

A version of the frame, here. I seldom follow antique designs faithfully; I do seem to want to go my own way.

Bron

Another image, of the frame above with it's twin, and the original antique.

Old Speckled Framer

Sometimes when spraying gesso, there will be a clog; a little something in the tubes. The easiest way to clear the clog is to gently place a finger over the nozzle so there is blow back, that will clear the clog, gently being the operative word. Done properly, this will clear the clog, and not blow a burst of gesso out the vent. Tah Dah! A tip of the hat to Moreland brewing and their delicious in the widget cans.